Horror Fandom, morbid curiosity, and psychological resilience amid war conflict and economic crisis among university students in Lebanon: a cross-sectional study

Psychological resilience is crucial during prolonged instability, allowing individuals to adapt to change demands, manage intense stress, and maintain mental health. Engagement with horror media and morbid curiosity may be associated with resilience through simulated threat exposure, evidence remains limited in populations experiencing chronic crises. This study aims to examine the associations between horror-related film engagement, trait morbid curiosity, and psychological resilience among Lebanese university students living amid ongoing socio-economic and political instability. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 235 university students in Lebanon using a self-administered online survey. Measures included film genre preferences, the Pandemic Psychological Resilience Scale (PPRS), and the Morbid Curiosity Scale (MCS). Descriptive statistics and Pearson correlation analyses were performed. Participants demonstrated moderate to high psychological resilience (mean = 4.26 ± 0.81) alongside notable emotional distress. Morbid curiosity levels were moderate (mean = 3.42 ± 1.25) and were significantly associated with preferences for darker film genres, particularly crime (r = 0.539), horror (r = 0.524), and psychological thriller (r = 0.507) (p < 0.001). However, no significant association was found between psychological resilience and horror media engagement or morbid curiosity. A weak negative association was observed between preference for alien-invasion films and resilience (r = − 0.177, p = 0.006). While morbid curiosity is strongly linked to engagement with threat-related media, it does not appear to translate into increased psychological resilience in a chronic multi-crisis context. These findings highlight the importance of contextual factors in shaping adaptive psychological mechanisms.